Notices
Theme Parks Florida Rides, Attractions, Genie+ Questions and Info.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 19 Nov 21, 08:33 AM  
Link to this Post
#211
YorkshireT
Imagineer
 
Join Date: Jun 16
Location: God's Own Country
Originally Posted by Rebecca_ View Post
For HS I definitely think getting on Genie right at 7am and ropedropping (unless you're paying for both ILL's) is essential. We used it on Saturday - paid for Rise of the Resistance, rope dropped Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and booked Slinky Dog Dash right at 7am.

Over the course of the day we got LL for
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Toy Story Mania
- Rock n Rollercoaster
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Soarin'
Plus our ILL for ROTR.

We had late return times for everything so between opening and 4pm we did standby queues for the attractions with the least wait. Attractions we did with standby queue are:
- Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
- Tower of Terror
- Walt Disney Presents
- Frozen Sing-a-long
- Muppet Vision 3d
- Beauty and the Beauty show
- Star Tours
- Alien Swirling Saucers
We also had a long lunch break lots of time looking in the shops.

I'm a bit torn on the whole thing. Getting to the park at 8am and not being able to use any LL til late afternoon was annoying. But on the other hand we did have a great (albeit long) day and managed to get on a lot of rides which we just wouldn't have without Genie+
Thank you for this feedback which I have to say has left me very disappointed.
Am I understanding this correctly, you bought Genie+, got in at rope drop, and these were the Genie+ return times you managed to get?
If so, for us it would be useless, and in fact I’d say the product is not fit for purpose. Imagine what it will be like at Christmas.
Defenders of this system keep telling me it’s like Maxpass, but with Maxpass you weren’t waiting until late afternoon for ride bookings when getting in at rope drop. There wasn’t one ride disappearing at 7.02am with Maxpass, and at 7.01 blocking out all the remainder of the day if you booked it.
If I’m understanding you correctly this has been massively oversold, so all the slots are being taken immediately for top rides?
To give you an idea, with Fastpass in the run up to Christmas 2019 (this was before we were awarded unlimited free Fastpass after an issue when we moved to BLT 5 days in when we were still at Beach Club) we did every one of those rides on your list plus Alien Saucers, apart from Mickey Railway as that wasn’t open and not including Soarin as we did that multiple times other days. This includes ROTR. And we were back at the pool by 2pm, so you would have done them all without Genie+ and much earlier had the old Fastpass been in action.
This is really, really terrible if this is how it will work going forward. in fact this means for us standby lines only or more likely not booking a headliner, as we don’t stay in the park that long and the Genie+ money grab will have badly damaged the experience for anyone who likes to get in early and leave around lunchtime if they want a headliner on Genie. Perhaps this is part of Bobs plan- keep you in the park buying extra meals and drinks? Plus if you want Star Wars now paying $60 for a family plus tax.
All rides for Slinky gone by 7.02am- appalling it really is. Pure greed.
It’s fairly quiet now. Imagine when all parks are at capacity and thousands more are buying it as unlimited numbers are being sold. I hate to think it- but will booking Rock and Roll Coaster or ToT also be locking us out for big chunks of the day when the parks are jam packed?
In reality what I suspect Genie+ really means is unless you get lucky and get one of the best rides at park opening with thousands of others doing fastest finger first, you forget about riding those and use it for lesser rides with no doubt smaller queues anyway, so at least you get some use in the morning as Slinky is blocking it out. We will have to therefore probably miss Slinky entirely this trip to get any morning use out of Genie at all and queue for Mickey and Minnie. Looks like standby queues are untenable for ROTR too, so that one will be missed too as I’m not indulging in the madness of paying $60+ (will probably be surge priced when we go) to get on a ride.
Under the cover of Covid, we have been sold many pups supposedly about guest experience, but this looks like one of the biggest swizzles of the lot.
As I say though I’ll be reporting back at Christmas on this and I’m trying to stay positive.
__________________

Edited at 09:01 AM.
YorkshireT is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 09:11 AM  
Link to this Post
#212
kk20
Imagineer
 
kk20's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 13
i will be watching for your trip report on this with interest Our plan is rope drop for big hitters, leave the parks after a few hours, chill out for the middle of the day, hit the parks hard till closing time. Basically our Mediterranean midday siesta plan
kk20 is offline Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 09:15 AM  
Link to this Post
#213
YorkshireT
Imagineer
 
Join Date: Jun 16
Location: God's Own Country
Originally Posted by kk20 View Post
i will be watching for your trip report on this with interest Our plan is rope drop for big hitters, leave the parks after a few hours, chill out for the middle of the day, hit the parks hard till closing time. Basically our Mediterranean midday siesta plan
If you like to do that in the afternoon that seems to work.
We have always been people who enter ropedrop, often go back to the DVC room (we have a full kitchen ) for lunch, odd lunch in the park. Chill by pool in afternoon, possibly out for shopping, often offsite meal. The sceptic in me says this has been purposely designed to keep people on site and spending in park (original reason for the soon to be dropped magical express).
__________________
YorkshireT is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 09:22 AM  
Link to this Post
#214
Bozza
Imagineer
 
Join Date: May 03

Bozza's Reviews
Restaurant Reviews: 49
Originally Posted by YorkshireT View Post
I’m trying to stay positive.
Not sure there's too much evidence of that!

Is it really quiet there right now? The YouTube algorithm did its thing and suggested this video to me yesterday and one of my takeaways were the crowds.

These folk didn't have a great day with Genie+, but I think there's a fair amount of "user error" there, including their inability to access WiFi consistently and, presumably, do not have the ability to use cellular for data.

Our own @Rebecca_ clearly had a far more productive day in the same park, around the same time (possibly even the very same day) which does go to show some research and a plan goes a long way to making it work for you.

__________________
The DIBB's Bad Dad - abandoned my family to get drunk in Orlando:

Part One
Part Two
Bozza is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 09:37 AM  
Link to this Post
#215
loves2plan
VIP Dibber
 
Join Date: Jan 12
Originally Posted by YorkshireT View Post
If you like to do that in the afternoon that seems to work.
We have always been people who enter ropedrop, often go back to the DVC room (we have a full kitchen ) for lunch, odd lunch in the park. Chill by pool in afternoon, possibly out for shopping, often offsite meal. The sceptic in me says this has been purposely designed to keep people on site and spending in park (original reason for the soon to be dropped magical express).
From the vlogs I've watched of ropedrop vs G+ challenges (mainly Molly at Allears), it seems like you shouldn't really need to change how you like to do your days, or buy G+. Ropedrop still seems to be a good way of getting on rides before crowds without particularly long queues

For HS, Slinky seems to be the fly in the ointment for G+ as they go so fast which then triggers the 120 minute rule, and then you end up stacking for later in the day. We're not actually that bothered about Slinky, so I wonder what difference booking a different ride with a park opening time as your first one would make to getting the most out of G+ during a morning visit?
__________________

POFQ: Our 'once in a lifetime' trip, 31st Oct - 14th Nov 2012
SSR: 40th birthday trip, 2nd - 16th Jan 2014
SSR 2 bed villa: my mums first trip, 7th - 21st Feb 2015
POR: An unexpected Easter break, 2nd - 15th April 2016
CBR: Another unexpected Easter trip, 29th March - 12th April 2017
CBR: 18th birthday surprise trip, 21st October - 4th November 2019
Food report - the unexpected Easter QSDP extravagana! April 2017
What do we want? FOOD! When do we want it? NOW! QSDP food report, Oct 2019
loves2plan is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 10:21 AM  
Link to this Post
#216
Orlando 2004
Imagineer
 
Orlando 2004's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 09

Orlando 2004's Reviews
Restaurant Reviews: 3
Mobile

Originally Posted by loves2plan View Post
From the vlogs I've watched of ropedrop vs G+ challenges (mainly Molly at Allears), it seems like you shouldn't really need to change how you like to do your days, or buy G+. Ropedrop still seems to be a good way of getting on rides before crowds without particularly long queues

For HS, Slinky seems to be the fly in the ointment for G+ as they go so fast which then triggers the 120 minute rule, and then you end up stacking for later in the day. We're not actually that bothered about Slinky, so I wonder what difference booking a different ride with a park opening time as your first one would make to getting the most out of G+ during a morning visit?
I'd be interested in this too. Not too fussed about slinky so would be interested in how early slots would be without it. To be honest I haven't read too much about genie+ so far so need to. If we pay on the day at 7am would we be disadvantaged as we would need to pay for it before we could book a ride against those who have bought genie+ upfront? Not convinced we'll need it for all our days.
__________________
Orlando 2004 is online now Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 10:28 AM  
Link to this Post
#217
loves2plan
VIP Dibber
 
Join Date: Jan 12
Originally Posted by Orlando 2004 View Post
I'd be interested in this too. Not too fussed about slinky so would be interested in how early slots would be without it. To be honest I haven't read too much about genie+ so far so need to. If we pay on the day at 7am would we be disadvantaged as we would need to pay for it before we could book a ride against those who have bought genie+ upfront? Not convinced we'll need it for all our days.
No disadvantage as it becomes available to buy at midnight, so you could buy it at 6.55am and be ready to book at 7am, exactly the same as those who've added it in advance
__________________

POFQ: Our 'once in a lifetime' trip, 31st Oct - 14th Nov 2012
SSR: 40th birthday trip, 2nd - 16th Jan 2014
SSR 2 bed villa: my mums first trip, 7th - 21st Feb 2015
POR: An unexpected Easter break, 2nd - 15th April 2016
CBR: Another unexpected Easter trip, 29th March - 12th April 2017
CBR: 18th birthday surprise trip, 21st October - 4th November 2019
Food report - the unexpected Easter QSDP extravagana! April 2017
What do we want? FOOD! When do we want it? NOW! QSDP food report, Oct 2019

Edited at 10:31 AM. Reason: Typo
loves2plan is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 12:10 PM  
Link to this Post
#218
Hammerstone
Very Serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Jul 21
Location: Maidstone
I think for whats its worth I will stump up the 4.99 a day O2 data roaming to avoid walking around like a roman coin collector with a metal detector trying to find some wifi signal.

My rough plan for my full day is 7am SDD and then at 9am hopefully purchase ROTR and MMRR. Rope drop probably Smugglers Run, and then work my way around after that.

I am also at HS from about 3pm for my irst full day as we have a 50s prime time dinner reservation for 7.45 and ogas for 9.15, but I imagine me buying Genie Plus for that day would be pointless, unless of course I do it and it offers me SDD from the get go for like 4pm, as then it would make sense I guess. Who knows.
Hammerstone is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 12:31 PM  
Link to this Post
#219
Gill H
VIP Dibber
 
Join Date: Jan 08
Location: South Wales

theDIBB Guidebook
Guidebook Photos: 86
Guidebook Reviews: 24
Mobile

Wifi everywhere, you won’t need to pay.
__________________
DLP: day trips 2000, 2003; Cheyenne Sep 2009, Feb 2011, Nov 2018; Sequoia Lodge June 2008, May 2012; Elysee May 2012, Jan 2013, Sep 2013; Disneyland Hotel Mar 2015, Santa Fe Nov 2016; Newport Bay Sep 2017, Ibis Sep 2019, Hotel NY Art of Marvel Nov 2021
WDW: Port Orleans Riverside Dec 10; SSR Nov 14
Gill H is online now Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Nov 21, 01:03 PM  
Link to this Post
#220
khonsu
Suitcases dusted off...
 
khonsu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 14
Location: Glastonbury, UK
Originally Posted by Hammerstone View Post
I think for whats its worth I will stump up the 4.99 a day O2 data roaming to avoid walking around like a roman coin collector with a metal detector trying to find some wifi signal.

My rough plan for my full day is 7am SDD and then at 9am hopefully purchase ROTR and MMRR. Rope drop probably Smugglers Run, and then work my way around after that.

I am also at HS from about 3pm for my irst full day as we have a 50s prime time dinner reservation for 7.45 and ogas for 9.15, but I imagine me buying Genie Plus for that day would be pointless, unless of course I do it and it offers me SDD from the get go for like 4pm, as then it would make sense I guess. Who knows.
Completely with you on the area of taking UK data with me. WiFi drop in Disney is notoriously bad at maintaining a connection - of course Disney will have configured it to timeout connections to ensure those trying to connect can get on as well.
__________________


2002 Enchantedland Resort, 2005 Cabana Bay, 2011 Peabody, 2014 Rosen Point Orlando, 2017 Rosen Plaza, 2019 Rosen Shingle Creek. 2020 cancelled x2, 2021 cancelled x1... May 2022 - three weeks in Rosen Shingle Creek. May 2023 Drury Plaza Disney Springs. May 2024 - Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, December 2024 - Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort

khonsu is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
DIBB Savings
AttractionTickets.com

Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10

Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS


theDIBB Blog
One of the the five worlds found in Epic Universe, How to Train Your Dragon... Read More »
Disney announced that a new nighttime show, “Disney Dreams That Soar,” will run nightly at... Read More »
Walt Disney World Resort guests can get ready to have a “glowing’’ good time when... Read More »


theDIBB Menu


Exchange Rates
US Dollar Rates
ASDA  $1.2354
CaxtonFX  $1.2298
Covent Garden FX  $1.2494
FAIRFX  $1.2365
John Lewis  $1.2398
M&S  $1.2191
Sainsburys  $1.2351
TESCO  $1.2364
Travelex  $1.2361
Updated: 10:00 29/03/2024
Euro Rates
ASDA  €1.1447
CaxtonFX  €1.1407
Covent Garden FX  €1.1521
FAIRFX  €1.1468
John Lewis  €1.1477
M&S  €1.1289
Sainsburys  €1.1440
TESCO  €1.1445
Travelex  €1.1469
Updated: 10:00 29/03/2024

DIBB Premium Membership
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership?

Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as...

"No adverts on theDIBB Forums"

Upgrade Now



X